Use the Alfred Beginning Mandolin Book with CD start playing mandolin with all the basics. Easy chord forms and basic strumming patterns are introduced, and fiddle tunes, bluegrass, and blues styles are covered. Important techniques such as alternate picking, tremolo, and slides are taught in a fun, friendly manner. Students, teachers, and self-taught players alike will enjoy this thorough, easy-to-use method.

I play the piano, guitar, and a little banjo but have always been unhappy with my ability to just sit down and play without music in front of me. I have never picked up a mandolin before but in the 2 weeks I've had the book I've gained a much better understanding of why and how different chords work together. I've gone through approx. the 1st 40 pages of the book and feel comfortable with every lesson so far. ON the downside,I find being able to read music is very helpful with this book. I can see how it could be intimidating and confusing to someone that's totally new to both mandolin and the music. I would have loved to have a music book like this during a guitar lessons years ago. I plan to order the intermediate book of this series in the next few weeks. I'm really sold on this book's ability to help me get it right after all these years.

I bought this book along with my new mandolin, and was a bit disappointed to see that a lot of the book is spent teaching chords and basic music theory. Having played guitar for two years and knowing how to find this information on the internet, it's a bit of a let-down. With that said, if you don't know much about much or can't read music, it's not a bad buy.